Maria Rita Epik
Maria Rita Epik is a Turkish musician of Italian Levantine descent, who won the Turkish pre-Elimination of the Eurovision Song Contest 1979. In 1990 she opened the Epik Music School in her native Izmir. She attended Virginia Tech in the United States.Epik had won the internal Turkish pre-Elimination in 1979 to sing for Turkey at the first ever Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Israel. However, due to a political decision by Eurovision Turkey to boycott Israel, she had to withdraw and stay at home.
